Allies Knew Of Holocaust Earlier Than Thought, Documents Reveal

May 20, 1997|By Ray Moseley, Tribune Staff Writer.

LONDON — Western intelligence began learning of the mass extermination of Jews by Nazi Germany in autumn 1941, months before the date historians say an official policy of genocide was instituted, according to documents released Monday.

The documents are based on coded German radio traffic intercepted by Western code-breakers at the Bletchley Park intelligence-gathering center north of London.

They also provide new details on the Nazi plunder of art and scientific treasures from conquered countries, including a report that SS leader Heinrich Himmler tried to have the Bayeux Tapestry removed from France after the Allied invasion of that country in 1944.

Britain's Public Records Office--the equivalent of the U.S. National Archives--released the documents, including a British intelligence report of Sept. 12, 1941, stating that the execution of Jews was a regular feature of German police radio reports after the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941.

It said these reports provided evidence of "savage intimidation if not of ultimate extermination" of Jews.

Until now, historians have believed the policy of extermination was adopted by Nazi leaders at a meeting in Wannsee, on the outskirts of Berlin, in early 1942. The latest reports suggest an unofficial policy was in effect earlier.

One intercepted report said the Germans shot 12,361 Jews in the southern sector of the Russian front in the week of Aug. 23-31, 1941. Another 3,353 were executed in the first 13 days of September.

Still another report referred to the shooting of 700 Jews who were "incapable of work."

A partly decoded message from a commander in Belarus boasted in August 1941 that the number of executions in that area "now exceeds the 30,000 mark."

British intelligence commented that the tone of this message suggested that Nazi military commanders were "somewhat in competition with each other as to their `score' " of executions.

The British concluded that not all of those killed were Jews but said the fact that German forces were keen to emphasize the murder of Jews suggested that this was "most acceptable to the higher authorities" as a justification for the killing.

One intercepted message revealed that a German commander in the Ukrainian city of Kremenchug authorized an operation against Jews at 10:30 p.m. on Oct. 30, 1941. "We may suppose that the butchery went on all through the night," said British intelligence, adding that the action may have been on a scale "exceeding even the previous brutality of the German police."

The documents said the killings in the Soviet Union were carried out by ordinary soldiers, SS units and the Ordnungspolizei, the police force for occupied territories.

On the subject of Nazi plunder, the documents name German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop as the man who organized the campaign. But day-to-day control of operations rested with the SS.

One report said the most valuable art treasures were reserved for the use of Nazi bigwigs in their villas; lesser officials had to content themselves with rare books and costly vases.

Another report said Himmler sent a message on Aug. 18, 1944, to an SS officer in Paris, ordering him to bring the Bayeux Tapestry "to a place of safety" after the Allied invasion of Normandy.

The 800-year-old tapestry, depicting the Norman Conquest of England, is in the Norman town of Bayeux. Himmler's order was never carried out.

The Bletchley Park documents show the Allies learned toward the end of 1942 that the Nazis had formed a special SS battalion to steal whatever valuables they could after the invasion of the Soviet Union.

Among the treasures seized by the Nazis was the fabled Amber Room in the palace of Peter the Great at Tsarskoe Selo, outside St. Petersburg, then known as Leningrad. The Amber Room has never been found.